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Yerba Buena
Sara is a broken girl from a drug-soaked Northern California town. Fueled by panic, desperation, and impulse, sheheads south, hoping to start over in LA. Adecade after Sara has come of age in the restaurant industry, we meet Emilie, the granddaughter of Creoles who left New Orleans to escape segregation. Emilie takes a job arranging flowers for an elegant LA restaurant—andthings get complicated when she captures the attention of the restaurateur and engagesinan affair. When Sara and Emilie meet, their connection is immediate.But before they can find a way forward, both Sara and Emilie must reckon with the places they came from, even if it means revisiting what they'd rather leave behind.
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First published May 31, 2022
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About the author
Nina LaCour
25 books6,100 followersNina LaCour is the Michael L. Printz Award-winning and nationally bestselling author of six young adult novels, including Watch Over Me and We Are Okay; the children's book Mama and Mommy and Me in the Middle; and Yerba Buena, a novel for adults. She's on faculty at Hamline University's MFA in writing for Children and Young Adults program, and teaches an online class of her own called The Slow Novel Lab. A former indie bookseller and high school English teacher, she lives with her family in San Francisco.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 5,390 reviews
July 4, 2022
I’ve enjoyed Nina LaCour’s previous books and was looking forward to this one for the sapphic sad girl summer vibes. This one started off with the right amount of sad for me; however, as I got halfway through, it felt like the book was disjointed when you look at the characters’ background stories VS present-day stories. The relationship is also very sudden and insta-lovey, which takes away the emotional stakes that their background stories had built up. In the end, I’m not quite sure what the purpose of this story was supposed to be. It lacked focus and felt very meandering. I think the book probably would be more effective if the author had chosen just one character to follow and fully developed the one character's story, rather than two disjointed narratives that are awkwardly forced together later on.
November 15, 2023
when i was in high school i took a series of ever-advancing french classes, in attendance in each one a subset of the same people from the one before, and so we grew to have our own sort of dialect of almost-right, bullsh*t-idiom-heavy french.
one of our favorite maybe-real expressions was "oh, la vache." oh, the cow.
anyway, just about all i have to say right now is - oh la vache.
or maybe...i love it when women.
but that's about it.
i care about these folks so much! (and they are Folks to me, not characters, please do not come into my comments section and try to dissuade me from this belief. it'd be like waking up a sleepwalker - medically ill-advised, and unpleasant for all involved.
this is not quite romance, not quite contemporary, not quite literary fiction, and overall like if any nina lacour book extended 15 more years. which, it should go without saying, is a dream.
her gift for giving characters unique hobbies and passions, real emotions, in beautiful settings...in a word, awooga!
do you see why i tried to say i didn't have anything to write??
bottom line: this book made me emotionally illiterate.
-------------------
tbr review
i only have about 5 things i like in the whole world, and literary fiction and nina lacour are 2 of them.
so this better be good.
one of our favorite maybe-real expressions was "oh, la vache." oh, the cow.
anyway, just about all i have to say right now is - oh la vache.
or maybe...i love it when women.
but that's about it.
i care about these folks so much! (and they are Folks to me, not characters, please do not come into my comments section and try to dissuade me from this belief. it'd be like waking up a sleepwalker - medically ill-advised, and unpleasant for all involved.
this is not quite romance, not quite contemporary, not quite literary fiction, and overall like if any nina lacour book extended 15 more years. which, it should go without saying, is a dream.
her gift for giving characters unique hobbies and passions, real emotions, in beautiful settings...in a word, awooga!
do you see why i tried to say i didn't have anything to write??
bottom line: this book made me emotionally illiterate.
-------------------
tbr review
i only have about 5 things i like in the whole world, and literary fiction and nina lacour are 2 of them.
so this better be good.
June 3, 2022
This is maybe a perfect book? It is just lovely: gorgeous, understated, evocative prose; a rich sense of place; a focus on pleasure, beauty, and growth while not forgetting pain, loss, and grief; intricate queer characters whose lives felt so true.
LaCour follows two women, Emilie and Sara, from teenagehood to their late twenties, charting their journeys until they have a chance meeting at a restaurant where Sara is consulting as a bartender and Emilie is doing flower arrangements.
Although they are instantly drawn to one another circumstances prevent them from acting on it initially. They come from different backgrounds but both of their lives have been altered irrevocably by addiction in their families. But in the end they find beauty and purpose.
Sometimes simple miscommunications can have big consequences, that happens in life. Sometimes you lose contact with people you didn't intend to and that's sad but okay.
This is the kind of book that made me feel good about being alive. Bittersweet.
For those of you expecting a genre romance, I will caution you that this book is NOT that, nor do I think it's being marketed as such. I'm not sure why some readers seem to be disappointed that it isn't what it's not supposed to be?
LaCour follows two women, Emilie and Sara, from teenagehood to their late twenties, charting their journeys until they have a chance meeting at a restaurant where Sara is consulting as a bartender and Emilie is doing flower arrangements.
Although they are instantly drawn to one another circumstances prevent them from acting on it initially. They come from different backgrounds but both of their lives have been altered irrevocably by addiction in their families. But in the end they find beauty and purpose.
Sometimes simple miscommunications can have big consequences, that happens in life. Sometimes you lose contact with people you didn't intend to and that's sad but okay.
This is the kind of book that made me feel good about being alive. Bittersweet.
For those of you expecting a genre romance, I will caution you that this book is NOT that, nor do I think it's being marketed as such. I'm not sure why some readers seem to be disappointed that it isn't what it's not supposed to be?
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June 5, 2023
'I lost nearly everything, and then I built something better.'
The key to a good mixed drink is a perfect balance of ingredients to allow them to complement and enhance each other without overpowering. It is the collective amalgamation of flavors to become something greater than the sum of their parts. This idea is central to the two women in Yerba Buena, the first adult novel from Nina Lacour, as they seek to strike a productive balance in their lives and, ultimately, in their romantic endeavors with one another. This is a novel bursting with sensory details, from perfectly cooked meals, the smells and vibes of living spaces, and a cocktail made from the titular yerba buena herb, a plant native to California much like Sara and Emilie. As a former bartender, the appreciation of a perfect drink to match a mood was quite delightful. While the novel never quite achieves it’s own balance, it is a heartfelt look at aspirations and an interesting juxtaposition of identity, with Sara hoping to break the cycle of drugs and death that surrounds her family while Emilie leans into her Creol heritage and generations of builders in her family. Yerba Buena traverses the darkness of the world with hopes that love and perseverance will arrive triumphantly on the other side in a bittersweet yet empowering novel about family, hard work and embracing who you are and want to be.
‘Here was the taste of it — a little bitter, a little sweet, some citrus brightness, maybe honey. And here was meaning. A home, hers alone.’
The novel is divided into two sections, rotating the story of Sara, a teenager who escapes her father and hometown after the death of her girlfriend and becomes a local-celebrity bartender, with Emilie, a young woman who can’t seem to find her calling in life and fears everything is passing her by. The two are very much looking to define themselves in contrast to their families. Sara is hoping to escape the past while Emilie struggles with a tepid relationship with her rehab-frequenting sister and, for a time, caring for her aging grandmother. While Emilie has tender family moments, such as a moving scene where her father and her lay in the yard of his childhood home to watch a plane pass just above them, Sara’s memories of family only cause her pain. Even Spencer, her younger brother she cares for, seems headed down a dark path she tried so hard to escape.
‘So this was how it felt—to be dealt a blow, to pause, to keep going in spite of it. Not to start over but to continue.’
With the idea of balancing out the recipe for a life, we see how many ingredients have to be cut to not ruin the whole. In many occasions in this novel, it is the toxicity of men that threatens to overpower. Jacob is a prime example, who’s complete disregard for his family is disturbing, but also serves as a reminder to Emilie of everything she isn’t and finds herself lacking a self-identity to instead be an ornament for someone else.
We see much of her story being about finding roots, finding purpose, finding a self. For Sara is is finding a self despite, or even perhaps in spite, of her situations. Men again become a toxic counteracting force, even adult men who she thought she could trust who are quick to exert their power over her for sexual pleasure. While Grant is viewed as one of the few who don’t exert a negative force, he also becomes a weight she feels she cannot carry in order to thrive. The perfect mixture is still to be found.
Unfortunately, a lack of balance also makes the story sludge forward, often languishing under the weight of details. Told in chronological order, the novel sometimes loses its tightness of effect and feels like it is searching for itself as much as these characters are, which can arguably be a decision that allows us to simmer in the moments of life. However, the segments for each character become long and by the time it returns to the other they feel like an afterthought, with the two storylines not meshing or collaborating like ingredients of a cocktail. The third person narration tends to flatten them a bit as well, and Sara in the Emilie sections occasionally reads unfamiliar to the Sara in her own sections. There is a noticeable lack of Emilie in the Sara sections as well, which is a shame because they have such excellent chemistry in the Emilie sections. I can’t help but wonder if the novel would have benefited from being contained to one character with the background information of the other arriving disjointedly in briefer asides. Though with Sara’s fixation on abandonment this may explain her pushing Emilie out of her mind.
This could also very much be personal taste, but it often feels like juggling too much to the detriment of the collective whole. That said, life is messy and not a narrative, so I also respect that. ‘Sara wanted a moral from the old man’s story,’ we are told at one point, ‘but in its absence, she created one for herself; she belonged there, just as much as any of them did.’ And in all its messy glory, yes, these characters deserve their space. It helps that they are so lovable in all their flaws and foibles.
‘It’s all about your intentions.’
There are some beautiful moments though that mostly overpower any complaints, and while much of the dark aspects tends to be fairy at arms length without much introspection, the moments when a character starts to question their functions in the larger whole of society is quite lovely. Sara, for example, witnesses a drunk teenage party and stops to reflect on her own job as a bartender. ‘Maybe she was just like her father, selling drugs,’ she thinks, ‘only she dressed them up and made them sweeter.’ And that speaks so much to the heart of this novel: none of us are perfect, we all have our pains and our plans, and hopefully we can achieve them in ways that help others instead of harm them. And also what home means and how to find one.
‘My favorite thing about my home is sharing it with the people I love.’
The tender moments of this novel really strike a chord and you will easily find yourself rooting for these characters to make it work. There is a specific sense of realizing you are not a teenager anymore and hoping you aren’t falling behind in life that really pulls the heartstrings and this novel works best when it is a character study into these emotions. There are a lot of characters, each well designed with their own trajectories that the two focal characters must contend with, the sister Collette being one I quite enjoyed every scene with. Lacour excels at leaving a lot of character just below the surface while still giving essential glimpses into what must lurk beneath. Though she also has a tendency to use names to a degree that seemed excessive. Overall it is a successfully quiet novel, albeit one that seems to have too many details to fit its quietude, but I do love a queer romance and a coming-of-age tale set later in life. It is sure to please fans of authors like Sally Rooney. While Yerba Buena may not have the pacing perfect, it still cuts right to the heart and leaves you with a good feeling bursting from within.
3.5/5
The key to a good mixed drink is a perfect balance of ingredients to allow them to complement and enhance each other without overpowering. It is the collective amalgamation of flavors to become something greater than the sum of their parts. This idea is central to the two women in Yerba Buena, the first adult novel from Nina Lacour, as they seek to strike a productive balance in their lives and, ultimately, in their romantic endeavors with one another. This is a novel bursting with sensory details, from perfectly cooked meals, the smells and vibes of living spaces, and a cocktail made from the titular yerba buena herb, a plant native to California much like Sara and Emilie. As a former bartender, the appreciation of a perfect drink to match a mood was quite delightful. While the novel never quite achieves it’s own balance, it is a heartfelt look at aspirations and an interesting juxtaposition of identity, with Sara hoping to break the cycle of drugs and death that surrounds her family while Emilie leans into her Creol heritage and generations of builders in her family. Yerba Buena traverses the darkness of the world with hopes that love and perseverance will arrive triumphantly on the other side in a bittersweet yet empowering novel about family, hard work and embracing who you are and want to be.
‘Here was the taste of it — a little bitter, a little sweet, some citrus brightness, maybe honey. And here was meaning. A home, hers alone.’
The novel is divided into two sections, rotating the story of Sara, a teenager who escapes her father and hometown after the death of her girlfriend and becomes a local-celebrity bartender, with Emilie, a young woman who can’t seem to find her calling in life and fears everything is passing her by. The two are very much looking to define themselves in contrast to their families. Sara is hoping to escape the past while Emilie struggles with a tepid relationship with her rehab-frequenting sister and, for a time, caring for her aging grandmother. While Emilie has tender family moments, such as a moving scene where her father and her lay in the yard of his childhood home to watch a plane pass just above them, Sara’s memories of family only cause her pain. Even Spencer, her younger brother she cares for, seems headed down a dark path she tried so hard to escape.
‘So this was how it felt—to be dealt a blow, to pause, to keep going in spite of it. Not to start over but to continue.’
With the idea of balancing out the recipe for a life, we see how many ingredients have to be cut to not ruin the whole. In many occasions in this novel, it is the toxicity of men that threatens to overpower. Jacob is a prime example, who’s complete disregard for his family is disturbing, but also serves as a reminder to Emilie of everything she isn’t and finds herself lacking a self-identity to instead be an ornament for someone else.
‘[S]he’d been a flower. Snipped from the root, quick to wild, temporary. She’d existed to be lovely and to be chosen. No one had expected her to last.’
We see much of her story being about finding roots, finding purpose, finding a self. For Sara is is finding a self despite, or even perhaps in spite, of her situations. Men again become a toxic counteracting force, even adult men who she thought she could trust who are quick to exert their power over her for sexual pleasure. While Grant is viewed as one of the few who don’t exert a negative force, he also becomes a weight she feels she cannot carry in order to thrive. The perfect mixture is still to be found.
Unfortunately, a lack of balance also makes the story sludge forward, often languishing under the weight of details. Told in chronological order, the novel sometimes loses its tightness of effect and feels like it is searching for itself as much as these characters are, which can arguably be a decision that allows us to simmer in the moments of life. However, the segments for each character become long and by the time it returns to the other they feel like an afterthought, with the two storylines not meshing or collaborating like ingredients of a cocktail. The third person narration tends to flatten them a bit as well, and Sara in the Emilie sections occasionally reads unfamiliar to the Sara in her own sections. There is a noticeable lack of Emilie in the Sara sections as well, which is a shame because they have such excellent chemistry in the Emilie sections. I can’t help but wonder if the novel would have benefited from being contained to one character with the background information of the other arriving disjointedly in briefer asides. Though with Sara’s fixation on abandonment this may explain her pushing Emilie out of her mind.
This could also very much be personal taste, but it often feels like juggling too much to the detriment of the collective whole. That said, life is messy and not a narrative, so I also respect that. ‘Sara wanted a moral from the old man’s story,’ we are told at one point, ‘but in its absence, she created one for herself; she belonged there, just as much as any of them did.’ And in all its messy glory, yes, these characters deserve their space. It helps that they are so lovable in all their flaws and foibles.
‘It’s all about your intentions.’
There are some beautiful moments though that mostly overpower any complaints, and while much of the dark aspects tends to be fairy at arms length without much introspection, the moments when a character starts to question their functions in the larger whole of society is quite lovely. Sara, for example, witnesses a drunk teenage party and stops to reflect on her own job as a bartender. ‘Maybe she was just like her father, selling drugs,’ she thinks, ‘only she dressed them up and made them sweeter.’ And that speaks so much to the heart of this novel: none of us are perfect, we all have our pains and our plans, and hopefully we can achieve them in ways that help others instead of harm them. And also what home means and how to find one.
‘My favorite thing about my home is sharing it with the people I love.’
The tender moments of this novel really strike a chord and you will easily find yourself rooting for these characters to make it work. There is a specific sense of realizing you are not a teenager anymore and hoping you aren’t falling behind in life that really pulls the heartstrings and this novel works best when it is a character study into these emotions. There are a lot of characters, each well designed with their own trajectories that the two focal characters must contend with, the sister Collette being one I quite enjoyed every scene with. Lacour excels at leaving a lot of character just below the surface while still giving essential glimpses into what must lurk beneath. Though she also has a tendency to use names to a degree that seemed excessive. Overall it is a successfully quiet novel, albeit one that seems to have too many details to fit its quietude, but I do love a queer romance and a coming-of-age tale set later in life. It is sure to please fans of authors like Sally Rooney. While Yerba Buena may not have the pacing perfect, it still cuts right to the heart and leaves you with a good feeling bursting from within.
3.5/5
April 1, 2022
traumatized lesbians and difficult family dynamics and meet cute type shit over the course of like a decade????? i loooove side by side storylines like this. this story had my heart bursting at the seams
June 8, 2023
“She'd been a flower. Snipped from the root, quick to wilt, temporary. She'd existed to be lovely and to be chosen. No one had expected her to last.”
A story tracking two young women as they endure the very different traumas life hands them. They make their way through young adulthood, with its mistakes and heartbreak and missteps, learning and growing as they go. Ultimately they find their bliss and their own senses of who they are, and they find each other.
This book is about growth, grief, the simple joys in life and complicated relationships. I'm starting to discover I enjoy romantic literary fiction stories. I began to fall in love with these characters, started to see myself in them, the little things that they loved, and the things that made them happy and smile, and trying to figure out themselves as being a young adult. It really spoke to me. Life isn't simple, and this book spells that out for you. It's a beautifully heartbreaking little story.
I was there for every moment of their journey. It's not perfect but it doesn't have to be. That's the beauty of this book. I highly recommend.
”Here was the taste of it — a little bitter, a little sweet, some citrus brightness, maybe honey. And here was meaning. A home, hers alone.”
4.5
A story tracking two young women as they endure the very different traumas life hands them. They make their way through young adulthood, with its mistakes and heartbreak and missteps, learning and growing as they go. Ultimately they find their bliss and their own senses of who they are, and they find each other.
This book is about growth, grief, the simple joys in life and complicated relationships. I'm starting to discover I enjoy romantic literary fiction stories. I began to fall in love with these characters, started to see myself in them, the little things that they loved, and the things that made them happy and smile, and trying to figure out themselves as being a young adult. It really spoke to me. Life isn't simple, and this book spells that out for you. It's a beautifully heartbreaking little story.
I was there for every moment of their journey. It's not perfect but it doesn't have to be. That's the beauty of this book. I highly recommend.
”Here was the taste of it — a little bitter, a little sweet, some citrus brightness, maybe honey. And here was meaning. A home, hers alone.”
4.5
March 16, 2022
ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley
“So this was how it felt—to be dealt a blow, to pause, to keep going in spite of it. Not to start over but to continue.”
this book follows two women, throughout their teens and twenties, whose paths keep crossing. the star-crossed lovers vibes is so there, but this book is so much more than that too. this is a book ultimately about trauma and grief, but it is also about love and hope. we get to see these main characters be siblings, we get to see them make mistakes, we get to see them be preyed upon when they were so vulnerable, we get to see them triumph and realize they are deserving of good things no matter how many bad things happened in the past.
this is a hard book to talk about, and it really is filled with so much heartbreak, but it is beautifully crafted and really emphasizes that life is so short and so long at the very same time. and even though we are built on a lot of events that happened to us in the past, we are so much bigger than that. we all heal differently and we all cope differently, and we all keep going differently too. and i am so proud of you for continuing to keep going.
if you feel like you are in the right headspace to read some of these heavy themes and topics, i really recommend this one. and i can't wait to read more by nina lacour now.
trigger and content warnings: loss of a parent, loss of a loved one, depression depiction, grief depiction, talk of overdosing, missing loved one, panic attacks, child neglect, abandonment, parental abuse, sexual assault involving minors for money (brief, but brought up a lot, and very haunting), talk of periods, talk of blood, cheating/affair, divorce, power imbalanced relationship (not main characters together), heavy talk of drug addiction and drugs in general, brief mention of cancer, colorism, hospital settings, death, murder, homophobic family mention (briefly). this book goes into some really dark and intense places - so please use caution!
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“So this was how it felt—to be dealt a blow, to pause, to keep going in spite of it. Not to start over but to continue.”
this book follows two women, throughout their teens and twenties, whose paths keep crossing. the star-crossed lovers vibes is so there, but this book is so much more than that too. this is a book ultimately about trauma and grief, but it is also about love and hope. we get to see these main characters be siblings, we get to see them make mistakes, we get to see them be preyed upon when they were so vulnerable, we get to see them triumph and realize they are deserving of good things no matter how many bad things happened in the past.
this is a hard book to talk about, and it really is filled with so much heartbreak, but it is beautifully crafted and really emphasizes that life is so short and so long at the very same time. and even though we are built on a lot of events that happened to us in the past, we are so much bigger than that. we all heal differently and we all cope differently, and we all keep going differently too. and i am so proud of you for continuing to keep going.
if you feel like you are in the right headspace to read some of these heavy themes and topics, i really recommend this one. and i can't wait to read more by nina lacour now.
trigger and content warnings: loss of a parent, loss of a loved one, depression depiction, grief depiction, talk of overdosing, missing loved one, panic attacks, child neglect, abandonment, parental abuse, sexual assault involving minors for money (brief, but brought up a lot, and very haunting), talk of periods, talk of blood, cheating/affair, divorce, power imbalanced relationship (not main characters together), heavy talk of drug addiction and drugs in general, brief mention of cancer, colorism, hospital settings, death, murder, homophobic family mention (briefly). this book goes into some really dark and intense places - so please use caution!
Blog | Instagram | Youtube | Ko-fi | Spotify | Twitch
July 4, 2022
This is not a romance. It’s literary fiction. But damn is it good. I cared so much about these girls and wanted the best for them.
This cover doesn’t relay how dark some of the content is. There are a few trigger warnings I feel are necessary to provide: suicide, drug abuse, rape, sex for money, death of a loved one, alcoholism, and I’m sure there are a few I’m missing. It was intense. I loved it but I would warn anyone before stepping into blindly
This cover doesn’t relay how dark some of the content is. There are a few trigger warnings I feel are necessary to provide: suicide, drug abuse, rape, sex for money, death of a loved one, alcoholism, and I’m sure there are a few I’m missing. It was intense. I loved it but I would warn anyone before stepping into blindly
June 27, 2022
Literally not a person on this dusty rock of a planet would I suggest read this book.
There are a number of things about this entire reading experience that I just found raggedy, some of which I place squarely on the book and some I will take responsibility for.
What I'll take responsibility for is thinking this was a romance. I didn't think that necessarily meant that it was going to be fun and lighthearted as the book definitely straddles that melancholy line. But it's just not a romance. The narrative is not at all interested in making you believe the relationship between these two women. If anything the narrative is interested in sounding as literary and pretentious as possible to the point of verging on satire. The way the flowery writing was repetative, bashing the reading over the head again with the same motif was the moth bothersome part of this entire journey.
The story is also told in alternating perspectives from alternating points of time for absolutely no reason. I think LaCour would justify this as Sara's reasons for being so bad in relationships stemmed from her childhood, and Emilie from her lack of healthy romantic attachments ever in life. Only the fact that Emilie has never had a healthy relationship makes it all the more foolish how this book goes about penning the dynamic between Emilie and Sara and asking the reader the things it asks of them in the final moments of the book.
Despite the attempt at including a number of named side characters, none of them felt fully realized. They didn't even rise to the level of puppets where they existed solely to facilitate character growth for the main characters. They were literally just paper cut outs that danced around adding absolutely nothing.
There are whole portions of the book that do nothing, forcing the momentum to a screeching halt to drop some bonkers plot point that is never examined again; instead existing as this piece of backstory that exists for no reason.
The whole book felt overwritten, quietly pretentious and once again I am asking for the sapphics to get some quality literature. This was dry, stale, and completely lacking any seasoning so please save yourself by avoiding this book.
There are a number of things about this entire reading experience that I just found raggedy, some of which I place squarely on the book and some I will take responsibility for.
What I'll take responsibility for is thinking this was a romance. I didn't think that necessarily meant that it was going to be fun and lighthearted as the book definitely straddles that melancholy line. But it's just not a romance. The narrative is not at all interested in making you believe the relationship between these two women. If anything the narrative is interested in sounding as literary and pretentious as possible to the point of verging on satire. The way the flowery writing was repetative, bashing the reading over the head again with the same motif was the moth bothersome part of this entire journey.
The story is also told in alternating perspectives from alternating points of time for absolutely no reason. I think LaCour would justify this as Sara's reasons for being so bad in relationships stemmed from her childhood, and Emilie from her lack of healthy romantic attachments ever in life. Only the fact that Emilie has never had a healthy relationship makes it all the more foolish how this book goes about penning the dynamic between Emilie and Sara and asking the reader the things it asks of them in the final moments of the book.
Despite the attempt at including a number of named side characters, none of them felt fully realized. They didn't even rise to the level of puppets where they existed solely to facilitate character growth for the main characters. They were literally just paper cut outs that danced around adding absolutely nothing.
There are whole portions of the book that do nothing, forcing the momentum to a screeching halt to drop some bonkers plot point that is never examined again; instead existing as this piece of backstory that exists for no reason.
The whole book felt overwritten, quietly pretentious and once again I am asking for the sapphics to get some quality literature. This was dry, stale, and completely lacking any seasoning so please save yourself by avoiding this book.
October 21, 2023
In a Nutshell: A slow-burn, coming-of-age, queer literary fiction. The characters are well-developed. But the romance is not the star of the show, unlike what the official genre says. I don’t think this book will click with everyone.
Story Synopsis:
Where the book worked for me:
✔ Great representation – one MC is a Black bisexual, the other is a lesbian. Some more LGBTQ characters in the story.
✔ “Yerba Buena”, Spanish for "good herb", is used so many times and so well in the story. Right from a hotel name to the actual use of the herb to the symbolic role played by the herb in the characters’ lives, the title pops up again and again.
✔ There are too many characters at the start but the way they are written made their identities pretty clear. I didn’t have any confusion about who was who.
✔ The ending is beautiful.
Where the book still worked for me but might not work for other readers:
⚠ The pacing is extremely slow. I was prepared for this as it is a literary fiction, but those who like quick reads and loads of action won’t enjoy the writing.
⚠ The book is marked as a romance on Goodreads as well as NetGalley, but it is not at all a fit for this genre. A better description would have been a coming-of-age drama, but this would have collided with the promo declaring this book to be Nina LaCour’s first adult fiction novel. I am not too fond of OTT romance, so the lack of romance didn’t bother me at all. But if you are looking at this mainly for the romance, you won’t get it until much later in the story, and then too, in small instalments.
⚠ The book is clearly literary fiction, and the story is strongly character-oriented. Those who prefer plot-oriented stories won’t enjoy this kind of writing.
⚠ This is not an easy read and some of the scenes are quite traumatic. Sensitive readers or those in a low mental space might do better to stay away from this dark story.
Where the book could have worked better for me:
❌ Sara’s and Emilie’s story lines comes to us in alternate chapters. Though their timeline in the first half of the novel isn’t the same, there is no indication of the year as a point of reference. This makes the story confusing until their tracks merge. Even afterwards, there is a back and forth in the timeframe. I would have appreciated better time references, like maybe a month/year mention at the start of the chapter.
❌ I didn’t feel close to any of the characters, which is quite surprising for a literary fiction. It felt like they were always on the other side of a glass screen and I was just watching them without worrying about them.
All in all, the writing and the characters hooked me, though the lack of connect and the slow pace deterred me from rating this higher. Still, it is a poignant story and those who like their fiction on the darker side of the emotional array will like this coming-of-age novel for adults. Just remember not to look at it as a romance. I would certainly like to read more books by this author.
3.75 stars.
My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton, Coronet, and NetGalley for the DRC of “Yerba Buena”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
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Join me on the Facebook group, Readers Forever! , for more reviews, book-related discussions and fun.
Story Synopsis:
After young Sara’s love life comes to a sudden end, she runs away from her home in Northern California to LA, hoping for a fresh start. With a lot of hard work and some personal compromises, she finally makes a name for herself in a successful restaurant.
Emilie, a Creole whose family originally came from New Orleans, is confused about what she wants to do in life. She takes a job arranging flowers for a restaurant, until the owner notices her and woos her.
When Sara and Emilie meet each other, the connection is immediate but their circumstances are such that they can’t speak openly to one another. How will Sara and Emilie bridge over the hurts of their past? Will they be able to put aside their insecurities in the hope of a joint future? Read and find out.
The story comes to us in the third person perspectives of Sara and Emilie.
Where the book worked for me:
✔ Great representation – one MC is a Black bisexual, the other is a lesbian. Some more LGBTQ characters in the story.
✔ “Yerba Buena”, Spanish for "good herb", is used so many times and so well in the story. Right from a hotel name to the actual use of the herb to the symbolic role played by the herb in the characters’ lives, the title pops up again and again.
✔ There are too many characters at the start but the way they are written made their identities pretty clear. I didn’t have any confusion about who was who.
✔ The ending is beautiful.
Where the book still worked for me but might not work for other readers:
⚠ The pacing is extremely slow. I was prepared for this as it is a literary fiction, but those who like quick reads and loads of action won’t enjoy the writing.
⚠ The book is marked as a romance on Goodreads as well as NetGalley, but it is not at all a fit for this genre. A better description would have been a coming-of-age drama, but this would have collided with the promo declaring this book to be Nina LaCour’s first adult fiction novel. I am not too fond of OTT romance, so the lack of romance didn’t bother me at all. But if you are looking at this mainly for the romance, you won’t get it until much later in the story, and then too, in small instalments.
⚠ The book is clearly literary fiction, and the story is strongly character-oriented. Those who prefer plot-oriented stories won’t enjoy this kind of writing.
⚠ This is not an easy read and some of the scenes are quite traumatic. Sensitive readers or those in a low mental space might do better to stay away from this dark story.
Where the book could have worked better for me:
❌ Sara’s and Emilie’s story lines comes to us in alternate chapters. Though their timeline in the first half of the novel isn’t the same, there is no indication of the year as a point of reference. This makes the story confusing until their tracks merge. Even afterwards, there is a back and forth in the timeframe. I would have appreciated better time references, like maybe a month/year mention at the start of the chapter.
❌ I didn’t feel close to any of the characters, which is quite surprising for a literary fiction. It felt like they were always on the other side of a glass screen and I was just watching them without worrying about them.
All in all, the writing and the characters hooked me, though the lack of connect and the slow pace deterred me from rating this higher. Still, it is a poignant story and those who like their fiction on the darker side of the emotional array will like this coming-of-age novel for adults. Just remember not to look at it as a romance. I would certainly like to read more books by this author.
3.75 stars.
My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton, Coronet, and NetGalley for the DRC of “Yerba Buena”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
***********************
Join me on the Facebook group, Readers Forever! , for more reviews, book-related discussions and fun.
March 9, 2022
Nina LaCour’s sprawling narrative shifts between two women, stretching out over the course of years from their girlhood to their late twenties. Emilie and Sara are from fractured families, Creole Emilie’s childhood’s been scarred by the fallout from her sister’s drug addiction, Sara is recovering from a series of immense, life-altering losses. Lacour shifts between their perspectives as their experiences slowly bring them together, until the moment they meet in a fashionable LA restaurant, Yerba Buena. I really wanted to like this one but I was never really caught up in the story or convinced by the incidents that shaped the central characters’ development. The pacing’s unusually uneven, slow then fast then slow, skipping forward over a number of years then detailing the action of a few days. I also found the intensely traumatic events that marked the beginnings of Sara’s journey too much to take in, and the way they’re dealt with much too superficial.
The whole novel’s packed with difficult, potentially challenging material from drugs to prostitution to sexual abuse to possible murder, not to mention work and college affairs, cancer and divorce - there’s enough here for two books not one. But too often a situation was introduced in a way that made it feel like an easy, annoyingly manipulative, plot point. There was no sense of any deeper exploration or of the actual impact these circumstances might have on the individuals caught up in them. That said there were moments that worked really well: the style’s more than reasonable; there are numerous lyrical descriptive passages; and aspects of Emilie’s plotline were quite promising and absorbing. But I’m not really sure what this was actually supposed to be: a social issue novel; a lesbian love story or a lifestyle one; a conventional ‘healing’ narrative; a mystery; or an examination of toxic family legacies and smalltown horrors. There was an awkward restlessness to the whole undertaking; too much tension between the plot, characterisations and settings; a disjointedness; oodles of “tell” not that much “show”. This is LaCour’s first adult novel, so some of the problems may relate to that, and I’d be interested to see what she does next, but this one just didn’t really work for me. That said there are a lot of extremely positive reviews elsewhere on this site, so maybe I just wasn’t the right reader for this one.
Thanks to Netgalley UK and publisher Flatiron Books for an ARC
Rating: 2.5
The whole novel’s packed with difficult, potentially challenging material from drugs to prostitution to sexual abuse to possible murder, not to mention work and college affairs, cancer and divorce - there’s enough here for two books not one. But too often a situation was introduced in a way that made it feel like an easy, annoyingly manipulative, plot point. There was no sense of any deeper exploration or of the actual impact these circumstances might have on the individuals caught up in them. That said there were moments that worked really well: the style’s more than reasonable; there are numerous lyrical descriptive passages; and aspects of Emilie’s plotline were quite promising and absorbing. But I’m not really sure what this was actually supposed to be: a social issue novel; a lesbian love story or a lifestyle one; a conventional ‘healing’ narrative; a mystery; or an examination of toxic family legacies and smalltown horrors. There was an awkward restlessness to the whole undertaking; too much tension between the plot, characterisations and settings; a disjointedness; oodles of “tell” not that much “show”. This is LaCour’s first adult novel, so some of the problems may relate to that, and I’d be interested to see what she does next, but this one just didn’t really work for me. That said there are a lot of extremely positive reviews elsewhere on this site, so maybe I just wasn’t the right reader for this one.
Thanks to Netgalley UK and publisher Flatiron Books for an ARC
Rating: 2.5
June 14, 2022
I've read and enjoyed a few Nina LaCour books in the past, but this was something different entirely. I loved this. Everything from the writing to the characters to the Los Angeles-ness of it all, I truly just adored it. I cannot wait to see what else Nina LaCour has up her adult fiction sleeves because this was fantastic and it is definitely my favorite book from her yet.
CW: death of a loved one, drug use, overdose, addiction, sex work, cheating
CW: death of a loved one, drug use, overdose, addiction, sex work, cheating
October 11, 2024
I feel like audio is just as valid a reading experience, and yet it is a different one. The narrator makes a world of difference, and changes my relationship to the text. I prefer to hear clear, simple stories because I miss details in audio — so broader works make a stronger impression.
Yerba Buena, read clearly and sweetly by Julia Whelan, felt like a fresh take on the coming-of-age story. We follow two different young woman as they transition to adulthood, navigate intimacy, actualize their dreams. These gals go through some tough stuff, and yet LaCour tells it with a part-avoidance/part-normalizing way to make the realness of it all-at-once stand sharply against its shadow.
Yerba Buena, read clearly and sweetly by Julia Whelan, felt like a fresh take on the coming-of-age story. We follow two different young woman as they transition to adulthood, navigate intimacy, actualize their dreams. These gals go through some tough stuff, and yet LaCour tells it with a part-avoidance/part-normalizing way to make the realness of it all-at-once stand sharply against its shadow.
Read
May 29, 2022dnf @ 160 pages
one of my most anticipated reads of 2022 but i just did not connect with this one
one of my most anticipated reads of 2022 but i just did not connect with this one
June 24, 2022
In Yerba Buena, two young women with different lives cross paths at a swanky Los Angeles restaurant and bar. Emilie is a semi-regular patron whose job now includes making floral arrangements and delivering them to Yerba Buena weekly. She wants a life if creativity and is inspired by her Creole grandparents. Sarah is a sought-after, well-respected bartender at the restaurant, who is guarded because of traumatic events from her teenage years.
The story alternates between both women’s pasts — their family lives and relationships, and present day, following their meeting at YB while they’re both still finding their way in life.
I liked both Emilie and Sarah and though my own life is much different from each of theirs, I felt for them and the challenges they faced. I know I would have enjoyed Yerba Buena in print too, but the audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan was great!
The story alternates between both women’s pasts — their family lives and relationships, and present day, following their meeting at YB while they’re both still finding their way in life.
I liked both Emilie and Sarah and though my own life is much different from each of theirs, I felt for them and the challenges they faced. I know I would have enjoyed Yerba Buena in print too, but the audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan was great!
August 4, 2022
no se bien cómo calificar este libro.
lo disfruté un montón y la prosa de nina me llegó al corazón; me dejó reflexionando harto, lo cual siempre se agradece. la historia es mega cruda y melancólica, lo suficiente como para angustiarte y darte crisis existenciales. y me encantó eso.
sin embargo, sentí mucho más cariño por sara que por emille, la historia a veces me parecía un tanto plana/aburrida y nunca quedé con esas ganas de más.
me gustó harto el final eso sí, aunque me hubiese gustado que el último capítulo fuera más largo- lo cual es irónico, ya que todos los otros capítulos tenían como 40 páginas y EL capítulo que quería que fuera extenso no lo fue xd.
en fin, lo recomiendo, pero entiendo que no es un libro para todo el mundo.
lo disfruté un montón y la prosa de nina me llegó al corazón; me dejó reflexionando harto, lo cual siempre se agradece. la historia es mega cruda y melancólica, lo suficiente como para angustiarte y darte crisis existenciales. y me encantó eso.
sin embargo, sentí mucho más cariño por sara que por emille, la historia a veces me parecía un tanto plana/aburrida y nunca quedé con esas ganas de más.
me gustó harto el final eso sí, aunque me hubiese gustado que el último capítulo fuera más largo- lo cual es irónico, ya que todos los otros capítulos tenían como 40 páginas y EL capítulo que quería que fuera extenso no lo fue xd.
en fin, lo recomiendo, pero entiendo que no es un libro para todo el mundo.
June 9, 2022
I love when an author is able to accurately describe the charms and nuances of different LA neighborhoods and sites. You can tell in the way Nina Lacour describes things like the routes the characters take or the feeling of being under LAX's flight path, that she just gets it.
I'm pretty much down for any book about emotionally damaged millenials trying to figure their shit out, because it makes me feel seen or understood or whatever. But this one was particularly beautiful, unique and thought provoking.
I think one of my favorite parts was how being single wasn't looked at negatively in the book. The main characters used the time they were unattached to strengthen their relationships with themselves and their friends and family. Something I hear people say they'll do after a breakup but rarely see because self reflection is exhausting.
I'm pretty much down for any book about emotionally damaged millenials trying to figure their shit out, because it makes me feel seen or understood or whatever. But this one was particularly beautiful, unique and thought provoking.
I think one of my favorite parts was how being single wasn't looked at negatively in the book. The main characters used the time they were unattached to strengthen their relationships with themselves and their friends and family. Something I hear people say they'll do after a breakup but rarely see because self reflection is exhausting.
June 22, 2022
This is the kind of book where I enjoyed reading it in the moment but, soon after finishing, realized it will probably have no lasting impact on me.
It's hard to describe what I didn't like about Yerba Buena, and I'm not sure my ramblings will make sense. My most concrete dislike is that I was drawn to Sara more than Emilie, but the book seemed more focused on developing Emilie and leaving Sara's development for a rushed bit at the end. We get a lot of day to day description of Emilie's adult life, whereas a large chunk of Sara's story takes place in her teen years. I wanted to see more of adult Sara being a super cool bartender.
My main issue with this book is more to do with the vibe? The tone? The overall feeling of it? I'm unsure of how to put my feelings into words. To me, Yerba Buena just felt too glossy, too soft. The characters are going through a lot, but sometimes the book seems more concerned with describing a flower arrangement, fancy cocktail, or table setting than exploring the feelings of our two main characters. Emilie undergoes some pretty big character development, but I struggle to understand how we got there. She just sort of magically figures out her calling in life and suddenly everything makes sense. Some very tragic things are happening to both Emilie and Sara but they just kind of float on through and figure it out. The way Sara and Emilie are able to figure out and conquer their issues just felt too simple for me. Their development never felt earned.
Maybe, for me, what this book is lacking is anger and frustration. I think both characters have a lot of reasons to be angry and yet they basically never are, neither internally nor in confrontations with other characters. It's as though any sharp edges have been rounded off and smoothed over, turning anger into melancholy. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just not my thing.
I think Yerba Buena is a good and well written story, but my rating is always a reflection of how much I personally enjoyed a novel and there was just something that kept me from fully connecting with this.
It's hard to describe what I didn't like about Yerba Buena, and I'm not sure my ramblings will make sense. My most concrete dislike is that I was drawn to Sara more than Emilie, but the book seemed more focused on developing Emilie and leaving Sara's development for a rushed bit at the end. We get a lot of day to day description of Emilie's adult life, whereas a large chunk of Sara's story takes place in her teen years. I wanted to see more of adult Sara being a super cool bartender.
My main issue with this book is more to do with the vibe? The tone? The overall feeling of it? I'm unsure of how to put my feelings into words. To me, Yerba Buena just felt too glossy, too soft. The characters are going through a lot, but sometimes the book seems more concerned with describing a flower arrangement, fancy cocktail, or table setting than exploring the feelings of our two main characters. Emilie undergoes some pretty big character development, but I struggle to understand how we got there. She just sort of magically figures out her calling in life and suddenly everything makes sense. Some very tragic things are happening to both Emilie and Sara but they just kind of float on through and figure it out. The way Sara and Emilie are able to figure out and conquer their issues just felt too simple for me. Their development never felt earned.
Maybe, for me, what this book is lacking is anger and frustration. I think both characters have a lot of reasons to be angry and yet they basically never are, neither internally nor in confrontations with other characters. It's as though any sharp edges have been rounded off and smoothed over, turning anger into melancholy. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just not my thing.
I think Yerba Buena is a good and well written story, but my rating is always a reflection of how much I personally enjoyed a novel and there was just something that kept me from fully connecting with this.
June 1, 2022
Como ya había dicho: este libro ha sido una decepción.
Yerba Buena llegó a mi círculo social gracias a YouTube, a mí me llamó la atención porque habían algunas reseñas que decían que estaba escrito casi de forma poética pero sin ser tan abrumador. Yo, que casi siempre leo libros palomeros, tenía ganas de sumergirme en una historia más compleja y reflexiva porque, de vez en cuando, hace falta.
Nina LaCour nos presenta una historia con dos protagonistas que sobreviven a las circunstancias, que cometen errores, que no pueden ser felices (o no saben), pero que tarde o temprano acaban entendiendo todos los porqués que necesitan entender. Mientras tanto, se enamoran, de sí mismas, de otras personas, entre ellas.
Pues... Mi problema con este libro no es que sea más drama que otra cosa (aunque sí, que empezara con hechos trágicos fue inesperado), yo ya sabía a lo que venía pese a no haber leído la sinopsis, sabía que la relación romántica entre las protagonistas no era lo principal, sino un escalón más en el ascenso de estas; sin embargo, la pluma de la autora no me ha convencido del todo. Que sí, que escribe bonito y tiene un toque lírico que impregna todo de una atmósfera de tristeza disfrutable, pero eso no basta para contar una buena historia.
Cuando el peso de la trama recae en Emilie, el ritmo de la narración se vuelve lento y hasta repetitivo, es un círculo que durante las primeras páginas pude llegar a comprender como persona, incluso me sentí algo identificada con ello, pero cuando se lee un libro una espera que las cosas avancen o por lo menos adquieran un tono distinto que haga que no perdamos el interés, aquí no sentí que obtuviera nada de eso. Sí, le sucedían cosas a Emilie, pero su personalidad —una personalidad que, debo reconocer, parece estar hecha así a propósito— no le permitía reaccionar concientemente a los sucesos, estaba allí pero al mismo tiempo no lo estaba. Y repito, como persona puedo comprender eso, a la mujer le asusta hacerle frente a las cosas que no puede cambiar, de acuerdo, pero como lectora a mí me ha dejado bastante fría su distanciamiento de la trama.
Contrario a Emilie, la historia de Sara es mucho más dinámica e interesante. Sara quiere escapar del recuerdo de su primer amor, por lo que desde joven empieza a vivir a prisa, sin detenerse ni un momento, tan rápida que ni siquiera las personas que la aman logran alcanzarla. Por desgracia, tiene menos participación en el libro y la mayoría de los eventos que la llevaron al Yerba Buena se mencionan de paso pero no se muestran, yo me he quedado con ganas de saber más sobre cómo le hizo para que la gente la tomara en serio, entre otras cosas; se menciona que es talentosa con lo que hace pero, siendo realistas, ser buena en algo no basta cuando vienes desde abajo y sin referencias de ningún tipo, aquí es como que de la nada todos empiezan a valorar las habilidades de Sara y se vuelve tan cotizada que puede permitirse rechazar ofertas y la autora no da una explicación creíble a todo eso (? No sé, igual es que estoy hablando desde un rincón de México.
Personalmente, creo que la balanza entre Sara y Emilie no está tan bien equilibrada como me gustaría, pero aún así el libro me ha gustado. No lo he sentido como una perdida de tiempo pese a la decepción que supuso, es entretenido y triste.
Mucha gente se queja de que no hubiera tantos momentos de Emilie y Sara juntas, pero yo eso lo entiendo: la autora no quería hacer un libro donde enamorarse fuera la solución, algo que de mi parte agradezco; no me quejo por la poca química entre ambas, de lo que sí me quejo es de que para ser un libro hecho con el objetivo de tocar la fibras sensibles de la gente, desperdicia su potencial en detalles que no tienen relevancia. No es solo que la trama se volviera intrascendente, sino que la propia pluma de la autora flojea bastante al momento de narrar el día a día de Emilie y su familia. ¿Que quiso escribir sobre la importancia de los pequeños detalles? Puede ser, pero no siento que lo haya hecho de la mejor manera.
En conclusión, me ha gustado, pero también me ha decepcionado. Creo que lo mejor es no leer la sinopsis ni crearse expectativas. Lo recomiendo solo si tienes ganas de algo ligero y al mismo tiempo reflexivo.
Yerba Buena llegó a mi círculo social gracias a YouTube, a mí me llamó la atención porque habían algunas reseñas que decían que estaba escrito casi de forma poética pero sin ser tan abrumador. Yo, que casi siempre leo libros palomeros, tenía ganas de sumergirme en una historia más compleja y reflexiva porque, de vez en cuando, hace falta.
Nina LaCour nos presenta una historia con dos protagonistas que sobreviven a las circunstancias, que cometen errores, que no pueden ser felices (o no saben), pero que tarde o temprano acaban entendiendo todos los porqués que necesitan entender. Mientras tanto, se enamoran, de sí mismas, de otras personas, entre ellas.
Pues... Mi problema con este libro no es que sea más drama que otra cosa (aunque sí, que empezara con hechos trágicos fue inesperado), yo ya sabía a lo que venía pese a no haber leído la sinopsis, sabía que la relación romántica entre las protagonistas no era lo principal, sino un escalón más en el ascenso de estas; sin embargo, la pluma de la autora no me ha convencido del todo. Que sí, que escribe bonito y tiene un toque lírico que impregna todo de una atmósfera de tristeza disfrutable, pero eso no basta para contar una buena historia.
Cuando el peso de la trama recae en Emilie, el ritmo de la narración se vuelve lento y hasta repetitivo, es un círculo que durante las primeras páginas pude llegar a comprender como persona, incluso me sentí algo identificada con ello, pero cuando se lee un libro una espera que las cosas avancen o por lo menos adquieran un tono distinto que haga que no perdamos el interés, aquí no sentí que obtuviera nada de eso. Sí, le sucedían cosas a Emilie, pero su personalidad —una personalidad que, debo reconocer, parece estar hecha así a propósito— no le permitía reaccionar concientemente a los sucesos, estaba allí pero al mismo tiempo no lo estaba. Y repito, como persona puedo comprender eso, a la mujer le asusta hacerle frente a las cosas que no puede cambiar, de acuerdo, pero como lectora a mí me ha dejado bastante fría su distanciamiento de la trama.
Contrario a Emilie, la historia de Sara es mucho más dinámica e interesante. Sara quiere escapar del recuerdo de su primer amor, por lo que desde joven empieza a vivir a prisa, sin detenerse ni un momento, tan rápida que ni siquiera las personas que la aman logran alcanzarla. Por desgracia, tiene menos participación en el libro y la mayoría de los eventos que la llevaron al Yerba Buena se mencionan de paso pero no se muestran, yo me he quedado con ganas de saber más sobre cómo le hizo para que la gente la tomara en serio, entre otras cosas; se menciona que es talentosa con lo que hace pero, siendo realistas, ser buena en algo no basta cuando vienes desde abajo y sin referencias de ningún tipo, aquí es como que de la nada todos empiezan a valorar las habilidades de Sara y se vuelve tan cotizada que puede permitirse rechazar ofertas y la autora no da una explicación creíble a todo eso (? No sé, igual es que estoy hablando desde un rincón de México.
Personalmente, creo que la balanza entre Sara y Emilie no está tan bien equilibrada como me gustaría, pero aún así el libro me ha gustado. No lo he sentido como una perdida de tiempo pese a la decepción que supuso, es entretenido y triste.
Mucha gente se queja de que no hubiera tantos momentos de Emilie y Sara juntas, pero yo eso lo entiendo: la autora no quería hacer un libro donde enamorarse fuera la solución, algo que de mi parte agradezco; no me quejo por la poca química entre ambas, de lo que sí me quejo es de que para ser un libro hecho con el objetivo de tocar la fibras sensibles de la gente, desperdicia su potencial en detalles que no tienen relevancia. No es solo que la trama se volviera intrascendente, sino que la propia pluma de la autora flojea bastante al momento de narrar el día a día de Emilie y su familia. ¿Que quiso escribir sobre la importancia de los pequeños detalles? Puede ser, pero no siento que lo haya hecho de la mejor manera.
En conclusión, me ha gustado, pero también me ha decepcionado. Creo que lo mejor es no leer la sinopsis ni crearse expectativas. Lo recomiendo solo si tienes ganas de algo ligero y al mismo tiempo reflexivo.
March 4, 2022
Don’t go into this book expecting a romance novel. While there’s a romantic arc, Yerba Buena is more about finding oneself than finding true love, even if that too is part of the journey. As a consequence, the MCs don’t spend that much time on page together for a significant part of the book. Their stories are told as flowing parallels, intersecting here and there, where life takes them. The blurb is slightly misleading in that regard.
At sixteen, after tragedy struck, Sara Foster left home and made her way to L.A. Ten years later, she’s a sought-after bartender, content with her present, still battling the past. Emilie Dubois is in her sixth year as an undergraduate, her fifth major, trying hard to finally move on. She gets a job arranging flowers, leading her to her parents’ favourite restaurant, Yerba Buena.
Sadness and tragedy permeate the story, choose your moment to read it. It will be worth your time. When we first meet Emilie as an adult, she’s not unhappy but life happens to her rather than her living it. When she engages in an affair with the owner of the restaurant, she’s not deciding to, it just happens. Her first night with Sara ends up in an unexpected and unwelcomed way that changes how she wants to live and from then on, she works on taking control and making choices. Her relationship with her family, especially with her sister, is really interesting, as is the way she claims her Creole roots and tries to keep them alive.
Unlike Emilie, Sara found her passion at a young age but her journey into adulthood was heartbreaking and opening up doesn’t come easily to her. Both women are resilient and relatable and so very human, with flaws and fears and hopes. Both have witnessed first-hand the damages addiction can cause and have had their lives impacted. Both mention the novel Passing by Nella Larsen (which has now been turned into a movie by Rebecca Hall, available on Netflix, with Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga), a book that means different things to either of them, bringing them together because or despite their differences.
The writing is at once simple and poetic, with pace variations conveying mood changes and beautiful turns of phrases. Yerba Buena was my first narration by Julia Whelan, and I enjoyed it, even if it felt a tad too melodramatic at times (the story speaks for itself, it doesn’t need too heavy a tone on top of it). But apart from this, the narration is excellent, the voices are good, fitting and easy to differentiate, the rhythm flows.
After Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake, Yerba Buena is the second debut adult novel by a YA author I wish I’d read before. Adding more books to my TBR right now…
At sixteen, after tragedy struck, Sara Foster left home and made her way to L.A. Ten years later, she’s a sought-after bartender, content with her present, still battling the past. Emilie Dubois is in her sixth year as an undergraduate, her fifth major, trying hard to finally move on. She gets a job arranging flowers, leading her to her parents’ favourite restaurant, Yerba Buena.
Sadness and tragedy permeate the story, choose your moment to read it. It will be worth your time. When we first meet Emilie as an adult, she’s not unhappy but life happens to her rather than her living it. When she engages in an affair with the owner of the restaurant, she’s not deciding to, it just happens. Her first night with Sara ends up in an unexpected and unwelcomed way that changes how she wants to live and from then on, she works on taking control and making choices. Her relationship with her family, especially with her sister, is really interesting, as is the way she claims her Creole roots and tries to keep them alive.
Unlike Emilie, Sara found her passion at a young age but her journey into adulthood was heartbreaking and opening up doesn’t come easily to her. Both women are resilient and relatable and so very human, with flaws and fears and hopes. Both have witnessed first-hand the damages addiction can cause and have had their lives impacted. Both mention the novel Passing by Nella Larsen (which has now been turned into a movie by Rebecca Hall, available on Netflix, with Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga), a book that means different things to either of them, bringing them together because or despite their differences.
The writing is at once simple and poetic, with pace variations conveying mood changes and beautiful turns of phrases. Yerba Buena was my first narration by Julia Whelan, and I enjoyed it, even if it felt a tad too melodramatic at times (the story speaks for itself, it doesn’t need too heavy a tone on top of it). But apart from this, the narration is excellent, the voices are good, fitting and easy to differentiate, the rhythm flows.
After Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake, Yerba Buena is the second debut adult novel by a YA author I wish I’d read before. Adding more books to my TBR right now…
May 17, 2022
I waited so long for something to happen and then the book was over.
August 1, 2022
Audiobook read by Julia Whelan
…..8 hours and 1 minute
Nina LaCour, San Francisco, based author, examines real life — love, loss, grief, self-discovery, emotional and psychological developments, and the world that we all inhabit together— in ‘each’ of her books….
Nina LaCour is a heartfelt-affecting storyteller.
Her characters are flawed and multi-dimensional. Much to contemplate and reflect.
Her varied stories are artfully written ….
beautiful, sad, bittersweet, and hopeful.
None of her books are more 300 pages.
And….personally, I can’t tell the difference, distinguish any difference, between her young adult books and her adult books.
In ‘Yerba Buena’ we meet Sara and Emilie. Both young women were fighting with inner demons, and family issues.
Both were running from themselves: literally and figuratively….
They both end up working at the famous cafe > Yerba Buena. ……and fall in love ….
‘Trigger warnings’: (handle with empathy and compassion) ….
…..the death a teenage girl, alcohol addictions, drug abuse, infidelity, sexual coercion, depression…..
‘Mouthwatering Triggers’:
(handled with enticing
appetizing tastes, flavors,
and fragrances)….
….foods, cocktails, flowers, herbs…
Yerba Buena rouses our conscience and touches our hearts.
…..8 hours and 1 minute
Nina LaCour, San Francisco, based author, examines real life — love, loss, grief, self-discovery, emotional and psychological developments, and the world that we all inhabit together— in ‘each’ of her books….
Nina LaCour is a heartfelt-affecting storyteller.
Her characters are flawed and multi-dimensional. Much to contemplate and reflect.
Her varied stories are artfully written ….
beautiful, sad, bittersweet, and hopeful.
None of her books are more 300 pages.
And….personally, I can’t tell the difference, distinguish any difference, between her young adult books and her adult books.
In ‘Yerba Buena’ we meet Sara and Emilie. Both young women were fighting with inner demons, and family issues.
Both were running from themselves: literally and figuratively….
They both end up working at the famous cafe > Yerba Buena. ……and fall in love ….
‘Trigger warnings’: (handle with empathy and compassion) ….
…..the death a teenage girl, alcohol addictions, drug abuse, infidelity, sexual coercion, depression…..
‘Mouthwatering Triggers’:
(handled with enticing
appetizing tastes, flavors,
and fragrances)….
….foods, cocktails, flowers, herbs…
Yerba Buena rouses our conscience and touches our hearts.
May 15, 2022
It’s been a while that I’ve fallen so effortlessly into a character driven story exploring two women from different walks of life as they overcome family trauma, grief, and find their place in the world.
This book felt as though I were following two paths, shadowing Sara and then following alongside Emilie, as we explored these two distinct personalities that eventually converge and form a romance that doesn’t overtake the plot but instead adds another level of ease into Nina LaCour’s storytelling that feels like flowing down a smooth river.
This novel felt like an indie coming-of-age film in the best way possible while also exploring the darker aspects of these two women’s life. There’s nothing more that I can say except Nina LaCour’s writing is stunning, engaging, and moved along at a flawless pace.
This book felt as though I were following two paths, shadowing Sara and then following alongside Emilie, as we explored these two distinct personalities that eventually converge and form a romance that doesn’t overtake the plot but instead adds another level of ease into Nina LaCour’s storytelling that feels like flowing down a smooth river.
This novel felt like an indie coming-of-age film in the best way possible while also exploring the darker aspects of these two women’s life. There’s nothing more that I can say except Nina LaCour’s writing is stunning, engaging, and moved along at a flawless pace.
September 17, 2021
I have heard about Nina LaCour for a long time and have been meaning to read her novels. When I saw she had an adult novel coming out I thought it was the perfect time to dive in and I wasn't wrong. A beautiful, poignant, deeply felt novel about love and trauma and finding your way to yourself.
Sara and Emilie are a lot different and a lot the same. Sara is running away from a difficult childhood and the sudden, suspicious death of her girlfriend. Emilie doesn't feel at home in her family, where her parents tend to center their time and attention around her younger sister and her issues with addiction. They cross paths at Yerba Buena, a restaurant where Sara is at the bar and Emilie is doing the flower arrangements. But this is not a simple love story. It will be a while before they are ready for each other.
Following these two women as they figure themselves out in their lives, their families, and their romantic entanglements is a real joy. They feel deeply real immediately and we can see exactly why they make the decisions they do. They both have issues they haven't fully dealt with and need to get past and we get to see them work through these things while not getting hit over the head with it. (Once or twice LaCour just laid it out but I didn't mind it. Once you figure the thing out it can present itself to you that simply, finally.) Sara has a few very specific parts of her past she needs to confront while Emilie has broader questions of her Creole identity and what she wants to do with her life. The contrast between them really helps the book feel fuller.
It's a simple novel in a lot of ways, but oh how I enjoyed it. It made me want to go out into the world and figure myself out and fall in love and all those things. LaCour's prose is not showy but she has a distinctive eye. The kind of writing where if I could just magically make myself a better writer, I would want to be exactly like this.
Now I'm even more excited to dive in to her YA backlist.
Content warnings around drug addiction/overdose, sexual assault by coercion are the main ones, lesser for sex work, homophobia and family rejection, death of a parent/grandparent, child neglect.
Sara and Emilie are a lot different and a lot the same. Sara is running away from a difficult childhood and the sudden, suspicious death of her girlfriend. Emilie doesn't feel at home in her family, where her parents tend to center their time and attention around her younger sister and her issues with addiction. They cross paths at Yerba Buena, a restaurant where Sara is at the bar and Emilie is doing the flower arrangements. But this is not a simple love story. It will be a while before they are ready for each other.
Following these two women as they figure themselves out in their lives, their families, and their romantic entanglements is a real joy. They feel deeply real immediately and we can see exactly why they make the decisions they do. They both have issues they haven't fully dealt with and need to get past and we get to see them work through these things while not getting hit over the head with it. (Once or twice LaCour just laid it out but I didn't mind it. Once you figure the thing out it can present itself to you that simply, finally.) Sara has a few very specific parts of her past she needs to confront while Emilie has broader questions of her Creole identity and what she wants to do with her life. The contrast between them really helps the book feel fuller.
It's a simple novel in a lot of ways, but oh how I enjoyed it. It made me want to go out into the world and figure myself out and fall in love and all those things. LaCour's prose is not showy but she has a distinctive eye. The kind of writing where if I could just magically make myself a better writer, I would want to be exactly like this.
Now I'm even more excited to dive in to her YA backlist.
Content warnings around drug addiction/overdose, sexual assault by coercion are the main ones, lesser for sex work, homophobia and family rejection, death of a parent/grandparent, child neglect.
April 13, 2022
heartbreaking, breathtaking, refreshing sapphic lit fic!!! read this!!!
March 8, 2022
There's an episode of How I Met Your Mother where the main character Ted muses about how he's grown cynical and stopped believing in a magical idea of The One. His friend Robin tells him he should start believing in chemistry instead because "You got chemistry, you only need one other thing...Timing. But timing's a bitch."
That's ostensibly the idea behind Nina LaCour's first adult novel, Yerba Buena, in which two young women—Emilie and Sara—dance around each other despite their chemistry because each has shit she needs to work through first.
I've never read anything by Nina LaCour but she's always been in the back of my mind as a writer to visit eventually. I was truly excited to check out her first novel for adults. I think I might be the only one who feels this way, but I found myself incredibly underwhelmed by this book.
So it seems as though LaCour wanted to examine how you can meet the right person at the wrong time, but the structure of the novel completely took the knees out of this idea for me. The characters don't meet until more than halfway through the book and their meeting is so brief that it's not clear why Emilie and Sara are so drawn to each other—they literally just say hi and exchange names, but that's enough for sparks to fly two years later?
The bigger issue for me, and this may just be my opinion, but trauma is not character development and LaCour doesn't offer character development until the last quarter of the novel. Sara ran away from home at 16 after experiencing some incredibly traumatic events, including the deaths of multiple loved ones, parental neglect, sexual coercion/assault, and drug abuse in the family. LaCour describes all these events at the outset of the novel but doesn't begin to explore how they actually affected Sara until the very end, which left me somewhat confused as to why these two characters dance around each other for so long. I ultimately kind of liked the way that LaCour wrapped things up, but she just hadn't given me enough of a reason as to why I should care about Emilie and Sarah's relationship up to that point.
That's ostensibly the idea behind Nina LaCour's first adult novel, Yerba Buena, in which two young women—Emilie and Sara—dance around each other despite their chemistry because each has shit she needs to work through first.
I've never read anything by Nina LaCour but she's always been in the back of my mind as a writer to visit eventually. I was truly excited to check out her first novel for adults. I think I might be the only one who feels this way, but I found myself incredibly underwhelmed by this book.
So it seems as though LaCour wanted to examine how you can meet the right person at the wrong time, but the structure of the novel completely took the knees out of this idea for me. The characters don't meet until more than halfway through the book and their meeting is so brief that it's not clear why Emilie and Sara are so drawn to each other—they literally just say hi and exchange names, but that's enough for sparks to fly two years later?
The bigger issue for me, and this may just be my opinion, but trauma is not character development and LaCour doesn't offer character development until the last quarter of the novel. Sara ran away from home at 16 after experiencing some incredibly traumatic events, including the deaths of multiple loved ones, parental neglect, sexual coercion/assault, and drug abuse in the family. LaCour describes all these events at the outset of the novel but doesn't begin to explore how they actually affected Sara until the very end, which left me somewhat confused as to why these two characters dance around each other for so long. I ultimately kind of liked the way that LaCour wrapped things up, but she just hadn't given me enough of a reason as to why I should care about Emilie and Sarah's relationship up to that point.
March 11, 2022
On my blog.
Rep: biracial Black bi/pan mc, lesbian mc, gay side character, Filipino American side character
CWs: drug abuse, mentions of overdoses, prostitution, child sexual abuse, death of a parent
Galley provided by publisher
Yerba Buena is a book. By which I mean, I read it, but I didn’t really feel any particularly strong way about it. It’s Nina LaCour! I was expecting to love this! But in the end? It was a book. That’s about all I can say.
Part of this may just be I was expecting something of a different book than I got, for whatever reason (I don’t even remember why anymore). What it turned out to be was a genre that I… don’t dislike, per se, but isn’t my favourite. And even Nina LaCour couldn’t save me then.
This is a book of very little plot. It’s about two women’s lives as they slowly trudge forwards onto the point at which they meet. That’s it. Now, of all the authors, you might have thought Nina LaCour could still make that interesting. I thought it too. And yet.
It’s kind of hard to say just what was the issue here. The writing was as beautiful as usual, with LaCour. That wasn’t it. Perhaps it was the combination of the lack of plot (a fact which could have been forgiven but for this next bit) and the sheer blandness of the characters. It’s only been two days since I read this and yet I cannot tell you a thing of note about them. They slipped from my mind as soon as I finished the book. I barely even remember their names.
This, ultimately, is my lasting impression of the book—if you can even call it that. It’s forgettable. It’s 300 pages of somewhat diverting reading, but nothing sticks. Which is probably the most disappointing part of the book. I could have stood it if it had been memorable, if not great.
But instead, this.
Rep: biracial Black bi/pan mc, lesbian mc, gay side character, Filipino American side character
CWs: drug abuse, mentions of overdoses, prostitution, child sexual abuse, death of a parent
Galley provided by publisher
Yerba Buena is a book. By which I mean, I read it, but I didn’t really feel any particularly strong way about it. It’s Nina LaCour! I was expecting to love this! But in the end? It was a book. That’s about all I can say.
Part of this may just be I was expecting something of a different book than I got, for whatever reason (I don’t even remember why anymore). What it turned out to be was a genre that I… don’t dislike, per se, but isn’t my favourite. And even Nina LaCour couldn’t save me then.
This is a book of very little plot. It’s about two women’s lives as they slowly trudge forwards onto the point at which they meet. That’s it. Now, of all the authors, you might have thought Nina LaCour could still make that interesting. I thought it too. And yet.
It’s kind of hard to say just what was the issue here. The writing was as beautiful as usual, with LaCour. That wasn’t it. Perhaps it was the combination of the lack of plot (a fact which could have been forgiven but for this next bit) and the sheer blandness of the characters. It’s only been two days since I read this and yet I cannot tell you a thing of note about them. They slipped from my mind as soon as I finished the book. I barely even remember their names.
This, ultimately, is my lasting impression of the book—if you can even call it that. It’s forgettable. It’s 300 pages of somewhat diverting reading, but nothing sticks. Which is probably the most disappointing part of the book. I could have stood it if it had been memorable, if not great.
But instead, this.
January 19, 2025
Sara ist aus ihrer Heimatstadt nach Los Angeles geflohen, sie hat die Kleinstadt, den dealenden Vater, den kleinen Bruder zurückgelassen. In Los Angeles fasst sie langsam Fuß, sie arbeitet sich von der Kellnerin zur Barkeeperin hoch. Eines Tages trifft sie im angesagten Szenelokal Yerba Buena auf Emilie, die dort die Blumengestecke arrangiert und sich so ihr Studium finanziert. Sofort fühlen beide die Anziehungskraft zwischen ihnen - doch der Zeitpunkt passt nicht.
"Wilde Minze" von Nina Lacour, übersetzt von Yasemin Dinçer, hat mich ab der ersten Seite begeistert. Saras und Emilies Geschichten verlaufen sehr lange parallel, man fiebert beim Lesen auf das erste Zusammentreffen der beiden hin, dann auf ihr Zweites. Das Buch lebt einerseits von dem Spannungsfeld, das die beiden Frauen umgibt, andererseits aber auch von ihren jeweiligen Lebensgeschichten. Sara hat früh ihre Mutter verloren, dann ihre erste große Liebe, beide an die Drogen. Sie löst sich aus ihrer Heimat und fängt nochmal neu an in Los Angeles, verkraftet es aber nie, ihren kleinen Bruder in der Kleinstadt bei ihrem meist abwesenden, kriminellen Vater zurückgelassen zu haben. Emilie hingegen ist in einer gutbürgerlichen kreolischen Familie aufgewachsen, stand bei ihren Eltern aber von Beginn an im Schatten ihrer drogenabhängigen großen Schwester Colette. Sie schwirrt ziellos durchs Leben, wechselt immer wieder ihren Studiengang und stürzt sich in eine Beziehung mit einem verheirateten Mann. Der Roman handelt von vielen schweren Themen, verliert aber trotzdem nie seine Leichtigkeit, denn er sprüht nur so vor Farben, Gerüchen und Geschmäckern - durch Emilies Job als Floristin, durch Saras Tätigkeit als Barkeeperin, durch das Restaurieren von Häusern. Ich habe "Wilde Minze" unglaublich gerne gelesen und möchte euch diese wirklich schöne, etwas unkonventionelle Liebesgeschichte sehr empfehlen!
"Wilde Minze" von Nina Lacour, übersetzt von Yasemin Dinçer, hat mich ab der ersten Seite begeistert. Saras und Emilies Geschichten verlaufen sehr lange parallel, man fiebert beim Lesen auf das erste Zusammentreffen der beiden hin, dann auf ihr Zweites. Das Buch lebt einerseits von dem Spannungsfeld, das die beiden Frauen umgibt, andererseits aber auch von ihren jeweiligen Lebensgeschichten. Sara hat früh ihre Mutter verloren, dann ihre erste große Liebe, beide an die Drogen. Sie löst sich aus ihrer Heimat und fängt nochmal neu an in Los Angeles, verkraftet es aber nie, ihren kleinen Bruder in der Kleinstadt bei ihrem meist abwesenden, kriminellen Vater zurückgelassen zu haben. Emilie hingegen ist in einer gutbürgerlichen kreolischen Familie aufgewachsen, stand bei ihren Eltern aber von Beginn an im Schatten ihrer drogenabhängigen großen Schwester Colette. Sie schwirrt ziellos durchs Leben, wechselt immer wieder ihren Studiengang und stürzt sich in eine Beziehung mit einem verheirateten Mann. Der Roman handelt von vielen schweren Themen, verliert aber trotzdem nie seine Leichtigkeit, denn er sprüht nur so vor Farben, Gerüchen und Geschmäckern - durch Emilies Job als Floristin, durch Saras Tätigkeit als Barkeeperin, durch das Restaurieren von Häusern. Ich habe "Wilde Minze" unglaublich gerne gelesen und möchte euch diese wirklich schöne, etwas unkonventionelle Liebesgeschichte sehr empfehlen!
August 18, 2022
This is one of the worst books I've ever read. The only reason I finished it is because I felt a moral obligation to combat the surprising amount of praise it received with an accurate review.
Yerba Buena is so disjointedly written I had to go back and read sentences over again because they made no sense. The author loves to follow a normally constructed sentence or comma with a fragment that omits its own first word. For example, "Emilie took Sara's hand and brought it to her mouth. Pressed her lips against it. She saw the pain in Sara's eyes, could feel how deep it cut. She let Sara get back to her book. Didn't ask any more questions that night." (213-214). Not only is this style confusing to read, it is pretentious and just plain annoying. And to make matters worse, the characters themselves talk like this. It's bad enough when a novel written in the third person gives its characters dialogue that mimic the narration, but it's even more glaring when the cadence is this distinctive and unnatural.
Yerba Buena represents the trauma plot at its worst. The characters have no distinctive personalities aside from their "traumas" which are lazily explained in the exposition of the book. In Parul Segal's article, "The Case Against the Trauma Plot," she argues that "Trauma trumps all other identities, evacuates personality, remakes it in its own image... With the trauma plot, the logic goes: Evoke the wound and we will believe that a body, a person, has borne it." This is the exact trap that Yerba Buena falls into. The characters are so underdeveloped I could barely remember who was who.
Regardless of how you feel about the trauma plot, I think it's safe to say LaCour doesn't even do it well. I don't know if she has any personal experience with the topics she's writing about, but if she does it doesn't show in her writing. The "traumas" are depicted so unconvincingly, it feels like a sheltered eight grader is trying to write a book about the Real World.
I love romance novels and I especially love gay romance novels but this book tried pushing the boundaries of the genre by adding particularly dark backstories and what seemed like an attempt at "literary" writing and it did not work for me. I haven't read LaCour's other books but something tells me she bit off more than she could chew with this one and should stick with what she knows. If you're going to try and reinvent the romance wheel, you had better be sure you know what you're doing. Just because there are gay women and "important" topics doesn't mean this is good art. We don't have to stop at mere representation, we are allowed to demand good art too.
The Case Against the Trauma Plot:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
Yerba Buena is so disjointedly written I had to go back and read sentences over again because they made no sense. The author loves to follow a normally constructed sentence or comma with a fragment that omits its own first word. For example, "Emilie took Sara's hand and brought it to her mouth. Pressed her lips against it. She saw the pain in Sara's eyes, could feel how deep it cut. She let Sara get back to her book. Didn't ask any more questions that night." (213-214). Not only is this style confusing to read, it is pretentious and just plain annoying. And to make matters worse, the characters themselves talk like this. It's bad enough when a novel written in the third person gives its characters dialogue that mimic the narration, but it's even more glaring when the cadence is this distinctive and unnatural.
Yerba Buena represents the trauma plot at its worst. The characters have no distinctive personalities aside from their "traumas" which are lazily explained in the exposition of the book. In Parul Segal's article, "The Case Against the Trauma Plot," she argues that "Trauma trumps all other identities, evacuates personality, remakes it in its own image... With the trauma plot, the logic goes: Evoke the wound and we will believe that a body, a person, has borne it." This is the exact trap that Yerba Buena falls into. The characters are so underdeveloped I could barely remember who was who.
Regardless of how you feel about the trauma plot, I think it's safe to say LaCour doesn't even do it well. I don't know if she has any personal experience with the topics she's writing about, but if she does it doesn't show in her writing. The "traumas" are depicted so unconvincingly, it feels like a sheltered eight grader is trying to write a book about the Real World.
I love romance novels and I especially love gay romance novels but this book tried pushing the boundaries of the genre by adding particularly dark backstories and what seemed like an attempt at "literary" writing and it did not work for me. I haven't read LaCour's other books but something tells me she bit off more than she could chew with this one and should stick with what she knows. If you're going to try and reinvent the romance wheel, you had better be sure you know what you're doing. Just because there are gay women and "important" topics doesn't mean this is good art. We don't have to stop at mere representation, we are allowed to demand good art too.
The Case Against the Trauma Plot:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
January 10, 2022
I'm a big Nina LaCour fan. I've read most of her YA novels and always really enjoy them. I think she has one of the most unique voices when it comes to writing loneliness, melancholy, loss, and ultimately healing. I also seem to have the habit of getting hooked into the feelings of her books reading until well into the night to finish them, because you can't be left hanging. So with all of this I was looking forward to her first adult novel Yerba Buena
Yerba Buena is a novel that spans years following the characters Sara Foster and Emilie DuBois. Both of these women have incredibly troubled and traumatizing childhoods though in vastly different ways, and in that have emotionally stunted adulthoods. But when they come together, it starts a long process to finding their respective places in the world. Though, not how we might think.
I don't love the blurb of this book. I don't even love my description of it but I don't really know how else to describe this book without spoiling major parts. And while the blurb isn't inaccurate- it is to a point. But to me the blurb reads like a romance novel, and this book is not a romance novel- not in a traditional sense at any rate. This book is more a character exploration of Sara and Emilie while having romance in it. Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic book and I loved it. But just so other readers know, it's not a romance novel and the blurb can suck you in.
As you might expect from a LaCour book, it's packed with pathos everywhere. As I mentioned earlier she is so great at writing loneliness and loss and the way it deeply affects people, and this book is wonderful in that regard. As someone who has read most of her other work I do see similarities to books like We Are Okay and Watch Over Me, but it didn't feel rehashed at all.
The prose in this book is gorgeous too. LaCour's ability to write heartbreaking scenes with such beauty is a gift. I love reading her words. And the way this book is constructed and paced is incredibly effective.
I loved Yerba Buena. I did kinda go into it with the idea it would be more of a romance novel, but while it wasn't- it was still a fantastic and profound read I'm sure will stick with me for a while. First 5/5 in 2021
Thank you to Flatiron and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
CWs: Off page sexual assault of a minor, Off page references to drug use, drug overdose
Yerba Buena is a novel that spans years following the characters Sara Foster and Emilie DuBois. Both of these women have incredibly troubled and traumatizing childhoods though in vastly different ways, and in that have emotionally stunted adulthoods. But when they come together, it starts a long process to finding their respective places in the world. Though, not how we might think.
I don't love the blurb of this book. I don't even love my description of it but I don't really know how else to describe this book without spoiling major parts. And while the blurb isn't inaccurate- it is to a point. But to me the blurb reads like a romance novel, and this book is not a romance novel- not in a traditional sense at any rate. This book is more a character exploration of Sara and Emilie while having romance in it. Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic book and I loved it. But just so other readers know, it's not a romance novel and the blurb can suck you in.
As you might expect from a LaCour book, it's packed with pathos everywhere. As I mentioned earlier she is so great at writing loneliness and loss and the way it deeply affects people, and this book is wonderful in that regard. As someone who has read most of her other work I do see similarities to books like We Are Okay and Watch Over Me, but it didn't feel rehashed at all.
The prose in this book is gorgeous too. LaCour's ability to write heartbreaking scenes with such beauty is a gift. I love reading her words. And the way this book is constructed and paced is incredibly effective.
I loved Yerba Buena. I did kinda go into it with the idea it would be more of a romance novel, but while it wasn't- it was still a fantastic and profound read I'm sure will stick with me for a while. First 5/5 in 2021
Thank you to Flatiron and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
CWs: Off page sexual assault of a minor, Off page references to drug use, drug overdose
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